The Villainess Lives Twice - Chapter 298

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 298

48.

When she opened her eyes, it was early dawn.

Artizea wiggled her feet under the blanket. Her ankle ached. She couldn’t be sure if it was moving properly.

Next, she tried moving her hand.

There was pain in her index finger. Artizea brushed over that area with her thumb. One joint of the finger that felt pain was empty.

“It wasn’t a dream.”

Her voice was hoarse, but it came out properly.

Her last memory was of a green pillar of light shooting up from the magic circle beyond Cedric’s shoulder.

Moonlight seeped through the window. The person sitting by the window stood up.

“Are you awake?”

“…Lady Lisia.”

Artizea called her name as if calling from within a dream.

Moonlight settled on Lisia’s hair, making it look like a faded color. It felt as if at least 15 years had passed.

“It’s been a long time.”

Lisia smiled.

Artizea truly thought so. Lisia’s departure was only last year, but their real meeting was the first in over ten years.

They both knew the other possessed old memories.

They wrote letters selecting news the other would want to know. This side always wrote that things were good, that everything was fine.

When writing that things here were going well, underneath lay the words: I am alive, I am not suffering.

But in the end, letters were just letters.

They could be rewritten and words could be chosen. Old matters could be appropriately hidden while new relationships were presented on the surface.

She thought about the day they would meet again. Then she also thought about how to hide her true face.

But that moment had never once become concrete in Artizea’s mind.

Her thoughts always stopped at “When we meet again—.”

Artizea couldn’t look directly at Lisia’s face and lowered her gaze.

Only then did she see that her hair scattered on the bedding had turned completely white.

“Don’t strain yourself trying to sit up. I’ve healed the external wounds, but the injuries you sustained aren’t just those.”

“Yes…”

“You’ve lost your finger forever. No matter how powerful healing is, it can’t create something that doesn’t exist.”

“Yes…”

Artizea answered obediently. Such things didn’t matter at all.

“Your ankle will continue to be somewhat uncomfortable. The magic circle penetrated into your ankle… It’s not a physical problem. But still…”

Lisia spoke gently.

“Everything is fine now. It’s over.”

Artizea raised her head to look at her.

She hadn’t always believed everything Lisia said was fine.

When Lisia said such things, it was more often another expression of “I can still endure, I can try harder.”

But Artizea could tell now.

Lisia was truly fine. She was fine even after going through all of that.

What was looking down at Artizea now wasn’t a saintess holding on while exhausted to the limit. Nor was it a woman weakening and dying.

It was a young, strong person who was only twenty years old, whom Artizea didn’t know well.

And it was someone she knew very well, who had survived all misfortunes and was now fine.

Upon realizing this fact, tears rolled down from Artizea’s eyes.

“Hic, sob…”

“I told you. I’m fine. And that I forgave you.”

Lisia reached out and gently stroked Artizea’s head.

“And you’ll be fine too. Lord Cedric is fine now too. It’s all over now.”

Artizea grasped her hand and sobbed.

The levee was safe. There were some injured from the fire, but not many.

The wildfire hadn’t spread either. Now the vigilante corps from each village, Kader City’s security forces, and the Western Army were working together to search for explosives that might remain elsewhere.

Most of the bandits led by Lawrence had been captured. Some had died or been injured fighting among themselves due to internal strife.

There were also some capital nobles who had followed Lawrence. Some were captured, and some succeeded in escaping.

But that wasn’t a big problem either.

They couldn’t do anything anymore anyway. They would have to live with their names on the traitor list, being pursued and hunted.

And Lisia said this:

“Cherish yourself. Live carefully and preciously for the remaining time.”

While she paused briefly, Artizea fidgeted with her tense fingers under the blanket.

The memory of her arm bursting inside the magic circle was vivid. It was so surreal it felt like a dream.

Her heart pounded as if it would burst.

“Your life now is not your own.”

“Yes…”

Originally, it should have been a magic circle that operated by taking Artizea’s life as payment.

But Cedric intervened and bore part of it.

Artizea’s life now was essentially living by receiving Cedric’s life force.

And at the end, Lisia suppressed and closed the rampaging magic circle with tremendous holy power.

“Lord Cedric told me. That you once turned back time with magic.”

When Lisia rushed over and placed her hand there, there were clearly two magic circles.

One of them had no function and was persistently targeting Artizea.

Hearing this explanation, Artizea looked at Lisia, then lowered her eyes again.

“I see… That’s how it was.”

She had offered her life to the first magic, and her holy power to the second magic.

Therefore, the second magic that blocked the levee consumed part of Artizea and Cedric’s lives before fulfilling its function and ending.

But for the first magic that turned back time to end, Artizea should have died.

Holy power and life force are homogeneous forces. So Artizea had treated offering her life and offering holy power as similar things.

If you couldn’t cut out life with holy power to use it, you had no choice but to kill for human sacrifice.

But magic couldn’t be that simple. The first magic was definitely meant to be completed only when she died.

Because of this, the magic circle remained unclosed. It connected the now-vanished spacetime to the present through what was called magic.

The continuous appearance of returnees was probably due to this.

Artizea felt that the divine oracle given to her took on another meaning.

“It remained until Lady Lisia forcibly terminated that magic with holy power.”

“That’s right.”

Lisia said. And looking at Artizea’s white hair and gaunt face, she tried to speak in a bright voice.

“I healed the injuries and replenished the damaged life force with holy power, so your body will gradually recover over time. Not to mention someone as robust as Lord Cedric. He won’t die, Lord Cedric. Absolutely not.”

Probably before even half a year passed, his hair would all turn black again, Lisia said as if joking.

Artizea smiled faintly without realizing it. Lisia smiled along with her.

And she said:

“But I don’t know how much life the magic took as payment, or how many years of that Lord Cedric took on instead. We can’t know how many years a person’s lifespan is to begin with.”

Perhaps Artizea might live for a long time, or perhaps she might die tomorrow.

And perhaps Cedric might die in a week.

This wasn’t a matter of health.

Cedric hoped she wouldn’t tell Artizea this. But Lisia thought it should be said.

To make her cherish herself as well.

Artizea let out a bitter laugh.

“That’s… a game of probability too.”

“That’s right.”

“If Lord Cedric is fine, that’s enough for me.”

Artizea said that.

The Emperor, who had been barely established for the Empire’s sake, should not die young because of mere conspiracies in a study.

But the man who loved her had shared that precious life with her.

Before his tears, Artizea could no longer say “You shouldn’t do that.”

She didn’t want to either.

Now she could no longer say she would take responsibility alone. Cedric had already endured everything together with her.

But how could she waste that life?

Artizea spent a long time contemplating life while being conscious of the heart beating within her chest.

After waiting for her to accept all of that story, Lisia finally spoke.

“And there was something I wanted to tell you.”

Lisia said that and took Artizea’s hand.

“Tia, divine power is the power of belief. When you believe that this work can change the world in the right direction, that power manifests.”

The reason most divine power manifestations are limited is because they first manifest the power they wished for most strongly, then believe that is their divine power.

If Lisia hadn’t returned, and if she hadn’t finally changed after growing weary of the things that consumed her heart, she would have thought she received the power of healing from the Divine.

“You naturally learned how to use divine power but couldn’t manifest any power. Because you believed in nothing.”

Artizea didn’t believe she could change the world for the better.

All she believed was that power required a price. So she was able to use her own body as payment to extract and use life force.

Lisia was the same. Her divine power initially worked as healing power.

So she believed healing power would be the way to save the world. That’s why only that power continued to work, and she couldn’t use other types of power.

She realized this wasn’t true when Lawrence began installing explosives in the Aba River.

She suddenly understood the true way to use divine power.

When her desire to bind her life with Lawrence’s life and kill them both became desperate, power in a different direction emerged.

Still, Lisia held back.

Lawrence wouldn’t let her destroy herself. Once, he might have been able to die with her, but not anymore.

While imprisoned, she studied divine power and refined its usage precisely.

It wasn’t power in the direction the Divine wanted. Because it was power for her own desires, not power to make the world right.

That’s why she had to draw on life force rather than divine power.

But Artizea was the opposite.

“I saw your divine power manifest.”

Lisia said.

She had clearly seen it. The light that rose from the hill changing from white to green.

That meant Artizea had moved in the right direction with a righteous heart.

“At that time, you weren’t calculating benefits to bestow favors or eliminate grudges, or executing probabilities for power struggles. It was something you did because you thought it was right.”

“Lady Lisia…”

“So… you received the Divine’s will.”

Lisia said tenderly.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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